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If you want to read more, you can see the entire PDF at europa.eu.

“SNS” = “Social Networking Site”

Recommendations The Virtual Group makes the following recommendations

•Recommendation SN.1 Encourage awareness-raising and educational campaigns

as well as face-to-face awareness-raising campaigns on the sensible usage of SNSs, SNSs themselves should, where possible, use contextual information to educate people in ‘real-time’. Additional awareness-raising campaigns should also be directed at software developers to encourage securityconscious development practices and corporate policy.

•Recommendation SN.2 Review and reinterpret the regulatory framework

SNSs present several scenarios which were not foreseen when current legislation (especially data protection law) was created. The regulatory framework governing SNSs should be reviewed and, where necessary, revised.

•Recommendation SN.3 Increase transparency of data handling practices

a review of the practices of SNS providers in Europe with respect to existing data protection law is recommended.

•Recommendation SN.4 Discourage the banning of SNSs in schools

SNSs should be used in a controlled and open way with co-ordinated campaigns to educate children, teachers and parents.

•Recommendation SN.5 Promote stronger authentication and access-control where appropriate

stronger authentication should be used in certain SNS environments. Additional authentication factors which could be used range from basic e-mail verification through CAPTCHAs[51] and recommendation-only networks to physical devices such as mobile phones and identity card readers.

•Recommendation SN.6 Implement countermeasures against corporate espionage

various steps are recommended for the prevention of social engineering attacks on enterprises.

•Recommendation SN.7 Maximise possibilities for abuse reporting and detection

SNSs should make it as easy as possible to report abuse and concerns. ‘Report Abuse’ buttons should be as ubiquitous as the ‘Contact Us’ option on classic websites.

•Recommendation SN.8 Set appropriate defaults

default settings should be made as safe as possible, and accompanied by userfriendly guidelines.

•Recommendation SN.9 Providers should offer convenient means to delete data completely

simple tools should be provided for removing accounts completely, as well as allowing users to edit their own posts on other people’s public notes or comments areas.

•Recommendation SN.10 Encourage the use of reputation techniques

reputation mechanisms can act as a positive motivator towards good online behaviour.

•Recommendation SN.11 Build in automated filters

a legislative review into SNS filtering should be undertaken, with a view to SNS providers building filters into their sites.

•Recommendation SN.12 Require consent from data subjects to include profile tags in images

SNS operators should give users privacy tools to control the tagging of images depicting them.

•Recommendation SN.13 Restrict spidering and bulk downloads

SNS operators should restrict spidering and bulk downloads (except for academic research purposes).

•Recommendation SN.14 Pay attention to search results

data should either be anonymised, not displayed, or the user should be clearly informed that they will appear in search results and given the choice to opt out.

•Recommendation SN.15 for addressing SNS spam

similar techniques to those used for e-mail anti-spam reputation systems should also be developed to eliminate spam comments and traffic.

•Recommendation SN.16 for addressing SNS Phishing

the best practices for combating phishing on SNSs, which are promoted by the APWG, should be adopted.

•Recommendation SN.17 Promote and research image-anonymisation techniques and best practices

•Recommendation SN.18 Promote portable Social Networks

the economic and social implications of portable social networks should be addressed.

•Recommendation SN.19 on research into emerging trends in SNS

looking to the future, the group has identified some trends emerging in SNSs which have important security implications. More research should be carried out in the areas of mobile SNS, convergence with virtual worlds, misuse by criminal groups and 3D representation and online presence.